Is Coke "herding breed"?

I actually disagree that Coke is "obviously" a mix.  Unless you do know for sure something about his parentage?  I've often thought he was remarkably like an English Shepherd.

http://www.nesr.info/es/index.html

The dogs below are all purebred.  Note the low earset which is the first thing I look at on an ES.  I couldn't find any good pics of the other thing, a peculiar natural angulation in the rear that makes the ES look like it's very upright or standing on tiptoe.  You can kinda see it in this dog:

Notice the ears and body type pf this one:

So if nothing else, you can list Coke as an English shepherd "mix" and say you actually aren't sure.  He may be something completely different - I have a real surprise right here in my house that no one would ever guess, for sure (but we know now) - I keep meaning to post pictures and get some guesses. But he's as my friend in ES rescue used to say, "ES-ey enough."

Have fun and good luck! 

I agree he does look like an English Shepherd. Hard to say what he is for sure of course but I think he certainly could pass as a herding breed mix, if nothing else.

 Becca, this is his mother, appeared to be a mix of some sort:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigglets/1580318594/

 If it matters, he carries his tail high or curled, and his tongue is solid purple.

I know this is his brother

I assume this is also a brother (these pics are from the rescue's Success Stories)

Also, in all the pics I posted, he has been trimmed/groomed.  I do a LOT of trimming and thinning of his ears and around his ears.  I trim and thing out his "pants", tail, feathering on the front legs, and do some thinning of basically his underside running from his chin to his tailset.  Besides the ears and tail, the solid black areas I don't touch.

 Weird for mixes to look so similar! The purple tongue is interesting...

  They look a lot like Hovawarts actually, although they obviously aren't: http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=20&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=hovawart&start=40&sa=N

OT, but, I went to the Flickr website and I was like, "Who the heck is Teddy???....Where's Coke?!" Yah.....I haven't had my coffee yet, lol! 

BlackLabbie

OT, but, I went to the Flickr website and I was like, "Who the heck is Teddy???....Where's Coke?!" Yah.....I haven't had my coffee yet, lol! 

Yep they called him Teddy but we hated that name.  His brother is Manitou.  He is in town, goes to the same dog park.

There is another mix on the rescue site that looks a lot more like a collie but not enough info for me to tell if it's from their litter.

Well, I don't really care what he is, but as long as you guys would call him a herding mix, I will sign him up....

When people ask me where to get his "breed" I just tell them to look at a Hovawart.  Honestly I think he may be mixed with a few of the breeds used to recreated the Hovawart.

I practically start drooling when I see Nikon, but Coke is a really, really nice looking dog too To me, he looks Collie and Chow with one more thing thrown in to give him the black and tan. He definitely looks like he has some herding dog in him to me.

 Cokes mom looks like a Collie mix. I have always thought that Coke looked aussie-ish but he certainly looks like those ES pictures above too. Either way, he's got herding breed in his genes from mom and possibly dad.

I fyou look at the other ES pictures, many of them resemble his mom. Usually ESes don't throw such a high rate of black and tan so maybe a Chow/Rott is the sire. The B&T on one side would pick up the B&T on the other (it's incompletely dominant) and you would see a bunch of black and tans.

Genetics is a funny thing, isn't it?  Good luck on the herding and of course you'll let us know, right?  Pictures are a must if you have success! 

 He might have some Rott in there and they are herding dogs, right?  You could get away with saying he had some Rott parentage, surely?  Collies and shepherds aren't the ONLY herding dogs are they?  Corgis and heelers are too....  And so are Rotties - they were originally used by Romans for herding and protecting cattle.  DOes that count?  I know they are Working, not Pastoral..... ?

It took me about 10 seconds to google these...

http://www.canadasguidetodogs.com/rottweiler/rottweilerherding.htm

http://video.google.com/videosearch?oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=rottweiler+herding&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=5yqLSbWFOqSLjAe3kJSiCA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

 http://www.akc.org/breeds/rottweiler/history.cfm

 I think he's close enough to count or at least try with.  His mom was obviously some form of collie breed mix.  He does look very ES too. It's crazy how all those siblings look so much alike.

And yes, rotties are used as herding dogs.  This is a picture of me and my sister and my uncle's old cattle dog.  She was awesome.

brookcove

I fyou look at the other ES pictures, many of them resemble his mom.  

 His mom looks like many of the ES I have seen.